TonyB2594

Scary Movie (1991) - I have never judged a movie for the amount of times the lead actor made me twitch.

But it happened with this one.

All I know is that it might take me two weeks to stop twitching after watching this brilliant performance by John Hawkes.

Holy smokes. What a workout for your nervous system.

I never knew that this Scary Movie existed nearly a decade before the horror comedy franchise started up in 2000.

This one might have a tinge of dark comedy in it, but it's definitely not silly funny.

John Hawkes plays Warren, a young man who is battling many things in his head.

He's shy. A nerd. Paranoid. Phobic.

The last place in the world Warren should be is at a Halloween festival in his small town in Texas, one that has a particularly aggressive haunted house of horror.

Warren is dragged there by his friend Jerry (Mark Vogues), who sets him up with a girl named Barbara (Suzanne Aldrich). She's a bit gothy and borderline slutty, and should run for the hills rather than link up with Warren. But she tries to give him a chance, God bless her.

The bottom line is, though, Warren is afraid of girls, afraid of haunted houses, afraid of bullies, afraid of everything. And he shows it. When everyone around him catches on, they make fun of and poke at him. Poor Warren gets more and more nervous and paranoid.

To top it off, Warren hears about a serial killer named John Louis Barker (Lee Gettys), who has broken out of custody and could be on his way to the very Halloween festival.

Warren, of course, thinks that Barker will be waiting for him in the haunted house of horror. And of course, he is forced to go in.

The twitching has only begun.

I'll give it to you straight. This is not a slick or lavishly produced movie. If you're looking for gore, there's not a whole lot, and what there is isn't particularly impressive. There are no real naughty bits. If you are easily annoyed by a nervous lead player, it'll have you heading for the exit early on.

I wasn't annoyed. I thought Hawkes hit it out of the park with his portrayal of high-level paranoid Warren. The haunted house of horror, on the cheap, grimy level of low-budget movies, I thought was pretty cool.

Ruby (1977) - Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And opinions are most definitely mixed in the viewer reviews on this horror/supernatural thriller.

Count me on the side of wildly enthusiastic.

I mean, it couldn't lose in my eyes, with the backdrop being a haunted drive-in theater. I practically lived at the drive-in during the middle to late 1970s, and I'm sure I actually saw this at one of them when it came out.

The story begins in the 1930s, when Ruby Claire is having a romantic adventure near a swamp with her gangster boyfriend Nicky (Sal Vecchio). They're about to get on a boat when the rest of the gang that Nick belongs to shows up and blows him away.

It's glug, glug, glug for Nicky. But why?

Apparently, one of them, a guy named Jake, was jealous of Nick and wanted him out of the picture. Ruby, meanwhile, pregnant with Nicky's baby, goes into shock during the shooting and gives birth that night.

When next we see Ruby, it's the 1950s. She lives with her daughter Leslie (Janit Baldwin), who is mute. Ruby is attended to by her faithful companion Vince (Stuart Whitman). They all take care of Jake (Fred Kohler Jr.), who is blind and in a wheelchair.

The rest of the gang, all of whom have done time in prison, work for Ruby at the drive-in theater that she owns. This is what a good gun moll does. She takes care of her "family." In this case, it comes with a price.

This week, Ruby's Drive-In is featuring Attack of the 50-Foot Woman. Not all of the excitement is on the screen.

Nicky has decided that 16 years of glug in the swamp is enough. He wants revenge.

The scenes of mayhem at the drive-in theater are so well done by director Curtis Harrington. There's one involving the soda vending machine that is just riotously brilliant. Not all of the killings are unique, but they're entertaining.

The acting is superb. Piper Laurie, fresh off her role in Carrie, knocks it out of the park as star character Ruby Claire. Janit Baldwin knocks it out of the county as her daughter Leslie, switching personalities and facial expressions as her mind and soul are being manipulated by Nicky.

Harrington very obviously put a lot of love into letting the drive-in theater patrons become part of the movie. Some of the scenes at the admission window and concession stand are among the best.

All in all, this was one of the most fun movie nights I've had in awhile. The grade is not an exaggeration.

Grade: 10 stars out 10.